Felony cases relating to immigration and the Mexican frontier are swamping federal courts along the southwestern U.S. border, clogging courtrooms and forcing judges to handle hundreds more cases than their peers elsewhere in the country. Judges in the five, mostly rural judicial districts on the border carry the heaviest felony caseloads in the nation. Each judge in the state of New Mexico, which ranked first, handled an average of 397 felony cases last year, compared to the national average 84. Federal judges in those districts — Southern and Western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California — also handled a third of all the felonies prosecuted in the nation's 94 federal judicial districts in 2005, according to federal court statistics. ... http://www.cbsnews.com

Saudi Arabia says it has foiled a plot by militants to carry out suicide air attacks on oil installations and military bases. Foreign nationals were among 172 terror suspects held in a series of raids, the interior ministry said on state TV. Large amounts of weapons and $32.4m (£16.21m) in cash were also seized. The Saudi authorities have been battling al-Qaeda since a wave of bombings and shootings in the kingdom in 2003. "Some [militants] have begun training on the use of weapons, and some were sent to other countries to study aviation in preparation to use them to carry out terrorist operations inside the kingdom," a ministry statement read out on state TV channel al-Ekhbariya said. Some of the military targets were outside the kingdom, it added, without specifying where....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6599963.stm

Residents of the Somali capital have started to clear the bodies of those killed in nine days of fierce battles from the streets of Mogadishu. Fighting has stopped for the moment, after Ethiopian forces drove insurgents from northern suburbs on Thursday. Many houses and businesses were looted during the fighting, including the Coca-Cola factory opened in 2004. More people have been displaced in Somalia in the past two months than any other country, the United Nations says. AFP news agency is reporting that Ethiopians and government troops are moving house-to-house in northern districts arresting suspected insurgents. The BBC's Farhia Ali says people were venturing down to the central Bakara market area to check on their businesses and to see if the buildings were still standing....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6599813.stm

Angry Afghan officials have reprimanded British diplomats over a campaign by UK troops in Helmand telling farmers that growing poppy was understandable & acceptable. Earlier this month the British military airdropped leaflets across the Sangin valley stressing to farmers that the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would not interfere with the current harvest. "Dear respected & noble resident of Helmand," read one translation The Guardian obtained from a western drugs official. "The Afghan national army & ISAF will not destroy your poppy fields. Poppy is the only tool of the economy & benefits farmers. We do not want to stop your source of food & money." British forces also paid for radio advertisements that reminded Helmand residents that UK & Afghan troops "did not destroy your poppies" in Babaji, the scene of a battle with the Taliban recently and a major poppy cultivation zone. "[The Afghan army] & ISAF forces know the people have no other income," ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2067007,00.html

Colombia has been hit by a nationwide power cut, hitting commercial centres and causing chaos on the roads. Ten people were trapped in lifts and the stock exchange was forced to suspend trading, officials said. They said the blackout, at about 1015 local time (1515 GMT), was caused by an undetermined technical failure at a substation in the capital, Bogota. More than 80% of Colombia was affected. Power returned to most parts of the country after several hours. Only some rural regions were still being affected by the blackout, officials said. Bogota's stock exchange resumed trading which would be extended for an hour to make up for the suspension. "It appears to have affected all of the country," President Alvaro Uribe said shortly after the blackout began. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6597269.stm

Storms with high winds rushed across four states Thursday, spawning tornadoes in Tennessee and Illinois and tossing a patrol car over a 3-foot-high fence in Indiana. At least seven people were injured.A sheriff's detective was following a funnel cloud when the winds tossed her car over the fence and dropped it upside down on a field, LaPorte County Sheriff Mike Mollenhauer said.Detective Shayna Mireles suffered a cut to her head and some bumps and bruises, he said.The sheriff said he couldn't believe the cruiser was lifted over the fence. He said, "I don't think I would have believed it unless I'd seen it."...http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/tornadoes/2007-04-27-midwest_N.htm?csp=34